


Insomnia Falls

by Squeemu



Series: Bandaids (Variety Box) [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Gen, Ignis tries to help, Immediately following Chapter One
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 23:25:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14681652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squeemu/pseuds/Squeemu
Summary: Noct said little, but it was clear from his tone that the headlines had been correct: King Regis had fallen, and with him, Insomnia.Ignis's first thought was to his prince, now his king. Immediately following, a second: it would be too much to ask Noctis to bear that title now.





	Insomnia Falls

**Author's Note:**

> I recently learned that today is the anniversary of the day Insomnia fell to the Niflheim empire. So, in memory of the Crown City, I post this bandaid of a fic. 
> 
> There are so many moments in this game that _hurt_. I don't expect this fic to make the end of Chapter One hurt any less, but seeing the boys take even a little comfort from each other would've meant the world to me in the game. Of course it didn't happen, but that's what fanfic is for, right?

Ignis stood on the overlook and watched the smoke drift up from Insomnia, the sky cluttered with imperial dropships competing for airspace. It was jarring to see them there, an absurd and inappropriate vision. His thoughts milled about uselessly, struggling to make their way through the thick, dark smoke choking his mind, just as it spilled out from the cracks in the Wall.

He turned to look at Noct, at a loss. He opened his mouth but there were no words waiting for him.

_A king pushes onward, always,_ Regis had told him, many years ago. _I ask that you stand by him and lend him your hand._

Ignis had to do _something._

Noct's phone rang, instead, too loud. Ignis almost expected the dropships to turn away from the Crown City and seek them out. 

They didn't.

Noct said little, but it was clear from his tone that the headlines had been correct. King Regis had fallen, and with him, Insomnia.

Ignis's first thought was to his prince, now his king. Immediately following, a second: it would be too much to ask Noctis to bear that title now. 

He stayed his tongue and turned toward the only way he knew how to be helpful: inward, to plan.

\- - -

It was already late in the day when they left Hammerhead for the Prairie Outpost. Ignis hadn't argued when Noctis ordered them to move out. His prince—his _king_ —wanted answers, and Ignis would not refuse him. He felt inclined himself to put as much distance as possible between Noct and the empire, and for now, that meant retreating, from the Crown City and everything they had known and loved.

They hadn't quite managed to cover half the distance before the sun set. Ignis suspected Noct would insist they continue on, but he had to try. "The sun has gone down," he said quietly. "We'd best ponder our lodgings as we go." They had not yet come face to face with the daemons that manifested in the dark, and Ignis hoped to keep it that way. Particularly now, when it would be all too easy to slip up, their thoughts elsewhere. 

"Seriously," Prompto said fervently, twisting to look behind him. "Noct, can we head back to town?"

"No. We keep going," Noct said, sparing Ignis the need to voice his reservations about staying the night in Hammerhead. It was too likely to be an imperial target.

Prompto groaned. "C'mon, man, but there's daemons after dark!"

"He has a point," Gladio grunted. Ignis hadn't expected support from Gladio, but it was welcome nonetheless. "Won't do us any good to keep driving if a daemon's blocking the road."

"And I'm really not up for running away from those guys right now," Prompto said, his voice strained and small.

Noct let out a breath. "Camping, then."

"Certainly," Ignis told him and pulled over. They were perhaps a twenty minute hike from the nearest haven—a bit closer to an imperial garrison than he would have liked, but the base was unlikely to be heavily occupied. All the empire's forces were almost certainly concentrated on the Crown City and immediate outlying areas. 

They began the trek to the campsite, moving slower than usual. The loss of Insomnia weighed heavily on them all. 

As soon as they reached the haven, Ignis set to lighting the fire and arranging the chairs around its warm glow, should Noct require a place to sit and think. To Ignis's relief, Prompto almost immediately sank onto the closest chair and pulled Noct into a conversation, too quiet to hear.

It took Ignis several attempts before he managed to light the camp stove and several more to determine an acceptable meal. In the end, he settled on something simple but filling: croque madame. They ate in silence, lost in their own thoughts but finding some small measure of comfort in their shared sorrow. Only… It occurred to him, too late, that perhaps not _all_ their sorrow was shared.

"Have you heard from your parents, Prompto?" Ignis asked softly.

Prompto blinked over at him, the shadows from the firelight flickering across his face. "Oh, uh, yeah. I, um. Got a message. They're safe." He scratched at the back of his neck. "Or at least as safe as they can be right now." His eyes darted over to Noct and away again, like a small fish testing potentially dangerous waters. 

"They're civil servants, are they not?" Ignis asked. "Their skills should serve them well. The empire will need people to carry on governing the city. They should be safe, so long as they don't resist."

Prompto laughed shortly. "Yeah. They should be pretty safe, then. They're not exactly the heroic type."

"Not everyone can be a hero," Ignis told him gently. "Sometimes the best course of action is survival."

Noct got to his feet, expression dark. Something in Ignis's chest clenched, the ache that had hollowed out his chest when he'd first glimpsed the headlines deepening as Noct moved to the haven without a word. His back was to the fire, his half-eaten dinner abandoned on the seat of his chair.

Noctis wished to be alone. He had never been one for false comforts, even as a child. There was nothing for it but to grant him some small semblance of privacy. 

Ignis cleared his throat, searching for something to say to ease the rough wake left by Noct's abrupt departure. "I'm glad to hear they're alright," he managed, turning to Prompto.

Prompto laughed again, but there was nothing humorous in his tone. "Yeah. Thanks, I guess."

Gladio got up, his meal apparently also finished, and moved to the opposite side of camp. He stood there for a moment, hands clenched, before he dropped to the ground and began a set of push ups with furious intensity.

"It's weird," Prompto said, continuing the conversation, "but it feels kinda shitty that they're okay, you know? When everything else—every _one_ else lost someone." He let out a breath, lowered his voice. "Gladio's dad must've… right?"

Ignis nodded. "As the King's Shield, Clarus almost certainly died at the King's side." He did not add that if Clarus had failed in his duty—if he had survived the attack that left the King dead—it would just as certainly be seen as a disgrace upon his house. 

"What about you?" Prompto asked suddenly, sounding almost hopeful.

"They died during the invasion of Tenebrae when I was young," Ignis told him. The King himself had delivered the news. Even as a child, Ignis could see the grief lining his face. Now, there would be no one to deliver news of his uncle. He didn't expect to ever learn the circumstances of his passing. Advisers to the crown served best behind the king, their presence rarely noted. 

They had not been especially close, regardless.

"Oh," Prompto said. "That—sucks, dude."

"I suppose," Ignis siad. "I've known nothing different." Noctis had always been there for him, a guiding light in his life. It was more than enough. And now, Noct had lost his father, his home, the peacetime promise of the treaty. It had seemed too good to be true. 

It was.

He found himself looking at Noct again, alone at the edge of their haven. And beyond him, at the horizon, where the lights of Insomnia should have been, the clouds were limned with the red of a false dawn. The Crown City was burning. "Excuse me a moment," he murmured and let his feet follow his gaze.

He sat next to Noct, respecting the silence between them, waiting for Noct to speak. 

He wasn't sure how much time had passed before Noct finally said, his voice quiet, "I hated them sometimes. All those people crawling through the city, oblivious, while Dad was dying for them, one day at a time. I could never understand why he was doing it." He laughed bitterly. "I still don't get it. What did they do to deserve it? They just kept going about their life, pretending we weren't at war. _Criticizing_ him, everything he did, when all he ever did was try to keep them safe."

Ignis's chest was nothing but a hole lined with claws, digging in harder with every word. He had nothing to offer his prince, no advice to give his king. All he could do was listen.

"I used to beg him to stay home with me," Noct said, his voice thick with emotions. "But the kingdom always came first. The safety of his subjects who never gave a shit about him." 

Ignis could remember trying to comfort Noctis when they were children, trying to distract him with books and games whenever the King left. The disappointment and frustration each time he failed; the pride and fulfillment every time he succeeded at winning the prince's attention for the day. He'd promised the King he would stand by Noct's side, to keep him moving forward.

"He could have built an army," Noct said, anger seeping into his voice. "Drafted them to protect the city, to give their lives like he did. He had the power of the Crystal." He let out a breath, shoulders slumping. "I suggested it, once, and he just looked at me like—" his voice caught, "—like—" and he broke off, wiping angrily at his face. "And all he said was that if we did that, we'd be no better than _they_ were." He let out a short laugh. "I don't know. But maybe we'd still be alive."

Ignis took a breath and said carefully, gently, "His Majesty once told me—"

"That a king should move forward, I know," Noct said, his voice still bitter.

"That having the power to protect the ones he loved from the darkness of this world was a great gift."

Noct's laugh tore through Ignis like a Niflheim blade. "Didn't do him much good, did it."

"He saved you," Ignis said quietly. It would hurt them both, he knew, but it needed to be said.

" _Why?_ " Noct demanded. "Why did he—send me away? He didn't even _tell_ me. We didn't even—" his voice choked, "—didn't even get to say goodbye."

Ignis swallowed. "I suspect he knew if he voiced his suspicions, you would refuse to go. You would stay and fight and—" his voice hitched, "—die with him in the Citadel." He took a short breath. "An unacceptable loss." Noct turned his head away. "Even at the very end, you were forefront his mind."

Noct was silent, long enough Ignis thought that was all. "Yeah, well," he said finally, quiet enough the words were almost lost in the darkness. "Would've been nice if he'd said something."

Indeed. 

Noct kicked his feet against the solid rock of the haven, staring out at the ruins of their city. After a few moments, he said, subdued, "I never got to know him. He was my dad, but—there was always all this duty in the way. The ring and the crystal and the kingdom." He kicked at the foundation of the haven again. "I just wish—" he trailed off and drew in a long, trembling breath. 

The king had always been kind to Ignis, the closest thing he'd had to a father. He'd invited Ignis into his home and his family, given him the greatest gift Ignis had ever received—a friend and a purpose. But it was a small thing compared to the bond Noct must feel for his father, and he was loathe to intrude upon Noct's grief with his own memories. 

Instead, he said, "After every council meeting, he asked after you." Ignis let out a breath of near amusement. "And I always informed him that you were still not eating your vegetables."

Noct laughed, a shaky, precious thing, and Ignis would stop the world from turning, if it could preserve this moment in time. He did not have the power, though, and the heavens continued their slow and stately march overhead. The moment passed and moved into another, Noct's laugh turning into a sigh. 

"He died for a lie," Noct said finally, anger creeping back into his tone. "They didn't even leave him dignity, at the end." He didn't need to specify to whom he was referring. 

"They have no idea what they're in for," Ignis promised him. "The empire thinks you're dead. We can—and will—use that to our advantage."

"They'll pay for this," Noct said, resolution joining anger in his tone. "I have nothing left to lose. If I have to take them out one MT at a time, I'll do it." He bared his teeth. "I'll see their empire in flames even if I have to die doing it."

"My spear and daggers are yours," Ignis vowed, "for as long and far as you wish to go."

Noct grinned at him fiercely, a force to be reckoned with, and Ignis's heart burned to see it. They would exact their revenge on the empire. Noctis would be King, Ignis would make certain of it.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been my headcanon for so long that Ignis's parents were advisors to the Tenebrae royalty that I can't quite accept the official position that they were alive in Insomnia before the boys left. It's slowly making it's way into all my stories. Hashtag sorry not sorry.


End file.
